At the playground

I took my granddaughter to the park yesterday. She spent ages in the swing which is her favourite. But that park has a static train thing she enjoys. She's in that saying where we are going etc and I'm squeezed in a little seat.

A boy joins her and they are good together. His mum appears and starts questioning me about who I am is she my granddaughter etc.

It's good in one way her looking out but so sad we have a society where people are at first suspicious of the only senior gent in the playground. It made me look around. There was one other guy, a young dad.

Honestly you feel like you need some documentation proving you're her granddad a not a nonce. I took her on a walk to find the ducks rather than have all the stares.

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0uijaFinger

Wtf. I hope you asked if she was the boy's mum.

OldBrit · 61-69, M

@0uijaFinger I did ask her not to vape near my granddaughter which seemed to f' her off more.

0uijaFinger

@OldBrit Good man 😌

MistressPoppy · 51-55, F

Sign of the times I'm afraid society has changed so much since I was a child. The "innocence" has all but gone.

Gusman · 61-69, M

I often go to parks to photograph the bird life. Sometimes there is a playground and children having fun.
It is very noticeable that many of the parents keep looking at me, making sure I am not photographing their children.
Often I have left so that the parents can stop worrying about that strange man with a camera.

Mindfulness

That's a terribly sad indictment of the world today.
You should never feel guilty or awkward for taking your granddaughter to the park.

HootyTheNightOwl

They also need to see literal disabilities before they'll believe that you're disabled now, too...

God knows how random members of the public can tell the difference between healthy lungs and lungs with COPD...

OldBrit · 61-69, M

@HootyTheNightOwl oh like the old director when I had to work from home due to my menieres disease would always start any teams meeting with me on camera with "Oh you look perfectly well today".

On one an attack started. So I said I'll stay as long as I can. But inevitably a few minutes in I vomitted violently into my constant companion the sick bucket. He immediately cut my feed.

HootyTheNightOwl

@OldBrit Hahaha... That'll teach him not to take your doctor's word for things!!!

I think the stupidest I heard was "Get us written evidence of your disability" - said to a man with a missing right leg (as in, it ended above the knee and he had no prosthetic leg on it) and a broken femur.

The femur was easier to prove since he only broke that in January... but they wanted "evidence" of something that happened almost thirty years ago - despite the fact that their eyes were telling them that it's obviously not there and he's sat in a powerchair. Like... open your eyes and look at it.

OldBrit · 61-69, M

@HootyTheNightOwl I've a friend who was born with a rare bone condition. He's had countless surgeries etc. He did work for a few years after school but it was getting worse etc. Anyway he had to stop around his thirties. Now thirty years later every so often there's a government initiative to get him back to work and he goes, in his wheelchair, to another assessment that once again says "This guy is too disabled to work". How with a condition that won't change do they think it will? Baffles me.

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